Sharing cinematic experiences one movie review at a time…plus, something extra here and there

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Welcome to the last sports update post this summer. Well, it’s technically no longer summer, but, to me, the autumn doesn’t start until I leave for Scotland and that’s only happening on Tuesday.

Anyway, today’s entry is dedicated to another running event I participated in – in my native language, it’s called Azuolyno Begimas which loosely translate to Oak Grove Run (it is held in an Oak Grove park). This is the 4th running competition of this kind and it usually happens twice a year – at the beginning of autumn and at the start of spring.

All of the participants (around a thousand of them) could choose from a variety of distances. The professional runners or more athletic people were able to run 15km, 10km or 5km, while the beginner runners and amateurs could try their hand at a free 3km Fun Run. There were also special distances for pupils, kids, families, and pets with their owners.

This particular run was quite special and interesting because I did something that I’ve never done before – I ran two distances in a single day during the same event. I did the 10 km distance – wasn’t really happy with my time or the state of my legs and feet – and I also accompanied my aunt on her first ever run – we did the 3km together. The second run was much more pleasant – not only shorter and easier but way more enjoyable too – I liked helping my aunt achieve her own personal goal.

The weather for running was quite good – the temperature was around 15 degrees Celsius and it was quite cloudy, so the sun wasn’t shining into one’s eyes or adding any unnecessary heat and warmness. However, by the time I was finishing the 10k, it started to rain which wasn’t that great or comfortable, especially when running with glasses.

All of the runners received their runner’s numbers and commemorative wooden medals. The participant’s package also included a discount card for hummel sneakers, a free entry to a sports center, a month’s subscription to an online exercise platform, an energy drink and a pot of quickly preparable porridge.

Since I’m going back to Aberdeen in a few days, I will miss out on quite a few running events in my native country. In a few weeks, a memorial run organized by a local university will be held, while a week after that there will be a walking/hiking event. The first week of October would have been reserved for a charity run to raise awareness for breast cancer if I was still living in Lithuania. However, I’m excited to get back to the UK and to start a new year at university. I also hope to find some running events in my ‘other’ hometown.

Welcome to another running post. This one is dedicated to the 4th annual Kaunas Running Marathon.

The marathon was started in 2013 and I’ve participated in all 4 of them, running either 10km or 5km distance. It is the biggest running event in my hometown as well as the 3rd biggest running competition in Lithuania.

After running the 5k distance last year, in 2016, I chose the 10k (I also did 10k in 2013 and 2014). I haven’t trained much before the marathon but was really happy with my result: I gave it all I had and reached my personal objective.

Kaunas Marathon has always been a celebration for the whole town. The short route (for 5k and 10k) is located solely in the Old Town of Kaunas, while the long route (for 21k and 42k) starts and ends there as well. Having a running event in the city centre means that all the runners are supported by crowds of spectators. It’s always nice to hear the sounds of claps and encouraging shouts when you run by.

The 4th Annual Kaunas Marathon had around 4000 participants: around 1500 ran the 5k, around 1000 – the 10k distance, 500 people did the 1.5km run for families and children, while another thousand of athletes did the marathon and the half-marathon.

If you to find more info about the event, you can visit its official page here as well as the Facebook page here.

Bellow, I’ve included photos from the event and photos of my runner’s number, the commemorative medal, official T-shirt, and the gifts from the sponsors: water, non-alcoholic beer (I know, right?), porridge, protein bars, vitamins and some coupons for free pasta, sushi and a free visit to the local sports centre.

Welcome to another short descriptive post about a running event that I participated in – 5 km fun for Lithuanians of the World. Without further ado, let’s begin!On June 4th, I ran 5 km for my country alongside other Lithuanians from all over the world. Let me explain. Every year, during summer, amateur Lithuanian runners (that live in their native country as well as abroad) run a 5 km distance in order to celebrate their heritage and to strengthen their bond to the motherland. Less than 3 million people live in Lithuania and probably the same amount of Lithuanians live abroad, mainly in the UK (like I do), US, Ireland, Germany, France and a bunch of other countries. So, the fact that they/we (both those staying in Lithuania and the emigrants) can all come together and celebrate their/our country, while doing something that they/we love – running – is pretty magical.

Since I’m home for the summer, I didn’t get a chance to participate in this run in a foreign city (the full map of all the running locations worldwide is here). However, I still did the run in my native town. Only around 50 people ran with me and I was one of the last ones to finish, but I was still really happy with my result – it was the best one of this season.

All the runners received athlete’s numbers, commemorative certificates and medals from the organisers. We ran in the park, so the route was pleasant and quite easy (no steep hills).

If you would like to find out more info about this event and if you are a Lithuanian or a friend of any Lithuanians, I suggest you participate in this wonderful movement! Bye!

This Sunday, I was reading Haper’s Bazaar UK magazine’s August issue and found an article about Tove Jansson – one of my favorite authors from childhood.

Tove was a Finnish novelist, painter and illustrator who was born in 1914 August. Last month, the world celebrated her 100th birthday. Tove is the most famous for the creation of Moomins – little trolls who live their peaceful but full of adventures life in Moominvalley. She wrote 8 books about them and also released a short story collection through period of 25 years (from 1945 to 1970). I was introduced to her characters by accident – I was about 8 or 9 years old when I first picked up her book Finn Family Moomintroll on sale at my local bookstore. Since then I was amazed and enchanted by the characters that she created and the events they lived through. Now, 10 years later, I still reread all of her books with a smile on my face but I also can see between the lines and understand the social messages she was portraying.

All books about Moomintrolls (Tittles in English):The Moomins and the Great FloodComet in MoominlandFin Family MoomintrollThe Exploits of MoominpappaMoominsummer MadnessMoominland MidwinterMoominpappa at SeaMoominvalley in November
Short story collection Tales from Moominvalley

For her contribution as a children’s writer she received Hans Christian Medal in 1966. She died in 2001 from lung cancer. Her work inspired a couple of theater productions, cartoons and even movies based on Moomintrolls. If you wish to know more about her work, I highly recommend you to read the article I previously mentioned by Sam Baker. I would love to visit Moomin Museum and MoominWorld theme park one day. For now, I will revisit my local library, where a special display for Tove Jansson was put together to commemorate her 100th birthday. Have a great rest of the weekend with a cup of tea and maybe one of Tove’s books!

As I have previously mentioned, I am a swimmer. And summer for swimmers means only one thing – open-water swims/championships/competitions. Yesterday (June 22nd) was first of them this year.

To begin with, I would like to clear some things out. In the the title of the post you can see that this swimming marathon is called Switzerland 2014. Switzerland is a name of the country in Europe, but it is also the name of a little village in my country – Lithuania. Near this village there are other villages called London and Paris. This is the map of my country and the red dot is that village with a name of a famous country.

Some facts about the marathon:Distance: 1.5 kmWater temperature: 17C or 62.6FOutside temperature: 13C or 55.4FThis was a 5th annual marathon (I have swam in all of them).

So, as you can see the water was warmer than the air. The conditions for swimming were terrible, I have got super cold after first 500 meters, my muscles became tense and it even seemed like my heart stopped beating or slowed down. However, after I finished the distance I felt amazingly, like I have accomplished something great. I live for the feelings like that. This marathon was not as cold as the one 5 years ago. In 2010 the temperature of the water was 14C or 57.2F.

The next marathon will be held on July 6th in my city – Kaunas.

Bellow you will find the photo of the lake we were swimming in and a picture of the medal I won. (I was second in my age group).

Sorry for not writing for so log. I was quite busy with school and preparations for prom/senior formal.

Today I am going to tell you about a bicycle marathon which I participated in last weekend. It was my second time competing in this type of competition. I chose the distance of 15.8 km. Other options there 47 km or 103 km.I was definitely not prepared for that much of cycling. In the end, I was very pleased with my result because I haven’t trained much. I’ve got 4th place and did my best time (last year I’ve got 2nd). My friend also participated with me and she got a 3rd place. (I will beat her next year 🙂

The weather was perfect for outdoor competition – chilly but not too cold. However, the wind was really strong and you had to cycle up the mountain against the blowing wind – so that was pretty hard .

Bellow you will find some photos from the event. Next sport post will be either about my swimming competition in Berlin at the begging of June or running marathon on June 15th.